KATHMANDU, JUL 05 -The government is set to miss the target for completing the track opening of two national priority road projects — Mid-Hill Highway and Kathmandu-Tarai Fast Track — this fiscal year too. Due to the failure to resolve problems related to land acquisition, geographical difficulties and the ongoing rainy season, the planned work is set to remain undone.
As per the government’s target, the track opening of the road projects should have completed by July 15, when FY 2012-13 ends. The deadline was set after the government’s previous plan to complete the work by the end of last fiscal year 2011-12 failed.
The Ministry of Infrastructure Planning and Transport has said the remaining 8-km track of the Mid-Hill Highway in the Western Section could not be opened due to rains affecting the work. And, the work on opening the remaining 8-km track of the Fast Track road did not see any progress due to problems related to land acquisition.
Although the government has accorded the national highway status to the projects, work on the roads has been moving at snail’s pace due to problems such as lack of support from political parties at local level, land acquisition problems, limited resources and lack of clear planning from the government.
Rukum, Jajarkot and Baglung of the Western Nepal are the districts were the government is yet to complete track opening of the proposed 1,767 km Mid-Hill Highway. “The project has not been able to work effectively to achieve the target because of the rains for the last month,” said Physical Infrastructure Ministry Secretary Tulasi Prasad Sitaula. The project’s track opening work in the eastern section was completed last year.
The Mid-Hill road project has been divided into two sections — Eastern and Western — for effective project implementation. The proposed highway connects 24 hill districts and links Chiyabhanjyang of Panchathar in the east with Jhulaghat of Baitadi district in the west. The government has recently hired two consultants to conduct a feasibility study for reducing the length of the proposed highway to save travel time, cost and required investment.
As far as the Fast Track road is concerned, the work on inviting capable international firms to develop the Fast Track road under the build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) has got momentum. Based on the fresh expression of interest called, three Indian firms have been shortlisted to submit technical and financial proposals.
However, the opening of 8-km track at Khokana area in Lalitpur has remained untouched for the prolonged land acquisition and compensation issue. “We completed the track opening from Chalnakhel of Lalitpur to Nijgadh this year,” said Ananta Acharya, chief of the Fast Track Project. “But for the local’s exorbitant compensation demand, the work on settling the land acquisition issue in Khokara area did not move ahead as expected.”
The express road will link the Capital with Nijgadh of Bara. So far, the government has spent around Rs 900 million for paying compensation to private land owners of districts including Makawanpur and Bara to acquire land for track opening of the Fast Track project. Also, over Rs 500 million was paid to Nepal Army that was assigned with the track opening job. As per the Physical Infrastructure Ministry officials, if they agree to the demand of Khokana locals, around Rs 15 billion will be required to compensate for the land to be acquired.
Failing to acquire the land, the ministry had decided to reduce the width of the 8-km section to 50 metre from the original 100 metre.
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